I have had the great blessing of finding a terrific walking partner who loves to do really long walks. These sorts of people are hard to find! When you add to the mix that this woman is also a fabulous conversationalist, you get someone who is a rare gift indeed.

I haven’t known her for long, and she and I are, in many ways, very different. However, throw a long walk, a happy dog, and a marathon goal into the mix, and somehow magic comes out the other side.

We train solo during the week, but on Sundays we get together and tackle the long walks. She and I each have beautiful walking trails very close by – one of the great benefits of living in Calgary! – and so we take turns meeting at each others’ homes, and walking each others’ walks. What a gift!

When you do walks together that are a minimum of 2.5 hours you get a wonderful opportunity to really reach into each other’s lives. Conversation gets past the superficial really quickly, and you discover unique jewels buried inside each other that rarely have the time to come out and sparkle in the sun.

As a social media manager, I’m very adept at building relationship online through the various platforms, both for personal and for business benefits. As an extreme introvert, I love having these tools at my disposal. Also, because of my introverted nature, I have loved walking on my own. However, this new situation with a great walking partner has been such a delightful surprise.

I write this to encourage you all to maybe stretch your comfort zone a little and find yourself a partner, a long trail, and a big goal. Who knows what you might discover! There is great joy in the companionship of a good friend on a long walk.

Darlene

Be A Star! Post your comments below and join in the conversation (or get it started!) and then share this post with your friends using the different share buttons on the blog. I'd sure appreciate it! Thanks!

Who is Darlene Hull? Click here: www.darlenehull.com to find out!

So, as part of my 12in12 challenge I wanted to get back out walking starting February 1. Today I just found this cool walking challenge that starts on the 1st and encourages you to walk 1049 minutes (30 minutes a day for 35 days) and the number of minutes is based on the number of miles for the Iditarod Sled race. Here are the details from the site:

The Idita-Walk is an event to promote physical fitness in the spirit of the Iditarod Sled Dog Race. The Iditarod Sled dog race is 1049 miles long from Anchorage to Nome, Alaska. To complete the Idita-Walk, simply walk 30 minutes a day for 35 days between February 1, 2012 to March 31, 2012 for a total of 1049 minutes (any combination of minutes will work – just reach 1049 during the 60 day event!).

Want to join me? It’s only $10 and the money is for charity. You can sign up here: www.idita-walk.com

You can even register your dog!

Post below if you’re going to join in! It will be fun to watch out for each other’s results.

Darlene

Be A Star! Post your comments below and join in the conversation (or get it started!) and then share this post with your friends using the different share buttons on the blog. I'd sure appreciate it! Thanks!

Who is Darlene Hull? Click here: www.darlenehull.com to find out!

So, on Friday I talked about my journey into the Discipline of Discomfort and my desire to push through the uncomfortable barriers in my life that are keeping me stuck.

Now, if you’re like me, and a bit of a “Type A” personality combined with ADD you will have a list a mile long of things that need to change in your life, or things you want to push through. Tackling them all at once (as we tend to do in the first week of January…) is only going to get you frustrated.

I like to try to add one thing per week, but even that is overwhelming and I burn out too quickly. Right after the New Year I came across Chris Brogan’s blog post “My 3 Words for 2012” and he mentioned a personal trainer named Jackie from Fitarella.com who uses a concept called “12 in 12″. Every month you pick one thing that you’re going to do consistently for 30 days. At the end of the 30 days you decide if you’ll continue or not. Regardless of the decision on that first item, you add a second item to work on in the next 30 days. Check out the blog post to get more detail.

The main area that is frustrating the heck out of me is the weight that refuses to budge, regardless of the diet, exercise, or magic potions I might try. SO unbelievably discouraging. If you can’t lose weight walking 100+km a week, while eating a healthy diet, there really is little hope. Currently I have the cold/cough from hell that refuses to let go, so my options are somewhat limited here as well. However, last month I began a program of supplementation/cleansing that I’m hoping will boost my energy and help me sleep better. I’ve been pretty faithful with that. The first two weeks of January have been about healing this blasted cold/cough, but I’ve also been doing some research into programs that will help me get fit and lose the weight without stressing my daily schedule too much.

Several years ago I found Zna Trainer and found her stuff very interesting and backed by a huge amount of science. It’s pretty weird, though, and is based on some rather odd breathing practices. It’s only 5-10 minutes a day and the results seem pretty astounding. I spent about an hour chatting with her on Facebook and then spent more time exploring her site and some of the success stories, and then 15 minutes working on figuring out the O2 exercises which are unbelievably powerful. Just the O2 Breathing exercises alone gave me a full abdominal and facial workout! I will feel this tomorrow.

So, between now and the end of January I’m going to do her O2 exercises every morning for 5 minutes. In February, my intention is to start back with my walking, which is nearly impossible right now with the combination of this cough and the cold weather. Hopefully by the end of January, the cough will be history!!

Why not join me? Pick one thing you’re going to do between now and the end of January, every day, faithfully, regardless. Post below what that is, and we’ll motivate each other!

Make it a great day!

Darlene

Be A Star! Post your comments below and join in the conversation (or get it started!) and then share this post with your friends using the different share buttons on the blog. I'd sure appreciate it! Thanks!

Who is Darlene Hull? Click here: www.darlenehull.com to find out!

Hello all! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and that you get a more relaxed week this week to enjoy family and friends!

I had an amazing Christmas! My husband and son are techies. One of their favourite things is to find me some new techno-gadget for Christmas, and this year was no exception.

The first gadget thing was a pair of incredibly warm gloves that allow me to use my iPhone/iPod without needing to take them off. In our cold Calgary winters, this is a real plus. They’re soft, unbulky, and while it sometimes takes a little more effort, they do a great job of communicating with my iPhone. These are going to be very useful for the next few months!

The other unbelievably cool thing I got was an “UP Bracelet” which I wear 24/7 to track my eating habits, activity levels, and sleep patterns. I can create and/or join challenges, create a photo food diary, and just generally keep track of how I’m doing health-wise. It’s very easy to use, and has graphs and charts that make tracking-at-a-glance really easy. I’ve just started to use it, and am still learning the ins and outs, but so far, it’s a riot. It’s comfortable to wear, waterproof, has a long battery life, and works together with an iPhone/iPod app to keep track of everything.

Ahh, nothing like a new gadget to help me get off my butt and get going!

How about you – did you get any fitness gadgets this Christmas? If so, share below! I’d love to hear about it!

Happy Walking!

Darlene

Be A Star! Post your comments below and join in the conversation (or get it started!) and then share this post with your friends using the different share buttons on the blog. I'd sure appreciate it! Thanks!

Who is Darlene Hull? Click here: www.darlenehull.com to find out!

If you could only do ONE THING to vastly improve your health, what would it be?

Watch this video and see:

I’d love to hear your comments!

Happy Walking (more so now, than ever!)

Darlene

Be A Star! Post your comments below and join in the conversation (or get it started!) and then share this post with your friends using the different share buttons on the blog. I'd sure appreciate it! Thanks!

Who is Darlene Hull? Click here: www.darlenehull.com to find out!

So, here we are at week 4! Lookin’ good. I’m so pleased with my results so far. My week was kind of up and down – a big birthday celebration for my daughter at “The Olive Garden where I simply enjoyed myself and my dinner consisting of Shrimp & Crab Tortelli Romana, their amazing endless tossed salad and breadsticks (only had one of those…) and a delicious dessert choosing the Tiramisu from their selection of tiny desserts called Dolcini. YUMMM! We had a GREAT waiter (Thanks, JB!) and lots of fun.

For the rest of the week I was pretty good, though I did enjoy the odd treat, which is how I like to diet!

My results? Take a look:

Get your own graph at skinnyr

No change in inches overall.

It’s been kind of an interesting week this week. I began working with an intentional goal dealing with increasing the set-point of my body’s very sluggish metabolism. I started experimenting with intentional goal setting a while back but (as usual) had trouble following through.

This time, instead of starting with an ideal weight set-point, I started with revving up my metabolism with the following intentional goal:

By the end of 4 weeks at the latest (Nov 6, 2011), I will have done whatever is necessary and appropriate to increase the set-point of my body’s metabolism by 10% – 15%. I will notice it because my body will be pleasantly and comfortably warm (including my hands and feet), excess fat will drop off, and I will feel healthy, lean, energetic, vibrant, clear-headed, strong, joyful, and alive.

I will have done all this joyfully and easily, according to the perfect will of God and for the highest good of me and of everyone else involved.

There is a specific, somewhat time-consuming method to wording this exactly right, and you can get more information on that here: Changing Your Unconscious Body-Weight Set-Point. Once you’ve got the goal exactly right you repeat it daily, 100x until you see the evidence that it’s working properly.

Now, the interesting thing is, while I’ve still been a little hit-and-miss with the goal setting thing, I’ve been plugging away at it, and the first thing that came to mind was a recipe I’d found and modified from Dr. Axe (whose site, while always great before, seems to be indicating some sort of malware, so I won’t share the link!). The recipe is as follows:

Detox Drink:

• 1/4 C. fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 C. organic apple cider vinegar
• 3/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp cassia cinnamon
• 10 drops therapeutic grade Grapefruit Essential Oil (if it’s less than therapeutic grade it can do you harm if you ingest it)
• 750 ml iced green Oolong tea

Mix together, and drink 250 ml before each meal. (note, you might need to put 1/3 into a large glass and dilute it with water or more green tea. It’s quite strong! Also note that Cassia Cinnamon turns to a kind of mucous if you leave it in the mixture for a while, so add 1/3 tsp to the bottom of the glass, then slowly add the mixture and mix as you go).

This recipe is a strong fat-burning mix but I’m not sure exactly if/how it stimulates metabolism. I drink it for its fat-loss qualities.

Then a couple of days later I was reminded of the chapter on Thermogenesis for weight loss as recorded in Tim Ferriss’ book “The 4-Hour Body“. Taking their suggestion, I started drinking ice-water every morning upon awakening. Over the next two weeks I’ll be adding in other things that also fire up the fat-burning metabolism of my body.

Finally, I remembered that at a recent health seminar I went to they listed the main symptoms of hypothyroidism as being:

• Tiredness/Low Energy
• Forgetfulness/Slower Thinking
• Weight Gain and
• Cold Intolerance

All of which I have in abundance! So I started researching that, as well, with some fascinating results that I’ll share with you on Wednesday! Stay tuned!

And I’m off for my walk! Catch ya’ll later!

Darlene

Be A Star! Post your comments below and join in the conversation (or get it started!) and then share this post with your friends using the different share buttons on the blog. I’d sure appreciate it! Thanks!

Be A Star! Post your comments below and join in the conversation (or get it started!) and then share this post with your friends using the different share buttons on the blog. I'd sure appreciate it! Thanks!

Who is Darlene Hull? Click here: www.darlenehull.com to find out!

So, four months later, and here I am, finally. Nothing like a week of sitting around on your butt in Mexico at a 5 Star all-inclusive resort, being waited on hand and foot in a stunning environment to catch your breath and re-focus! (Yeah, that photo is a picture of one of the local beaches. Gorgeous!)

Still struggling with the balancing act here. Back to doing regular shifts at Gymboree in addition to everything else as they’ve lost some employees so I’m filling in while they get the trainees up and running. However, I’m not so stressed. I’m taking things in stride, and feeling quite good about everything. I’m much more disciplined and focused (though my desk has exploded again…) I have a major project in the works, which I’ll tell you about later, and I’m back walking, though not actually training. The weather here in Calgary is currently beautiful as I write this, and has been for weeks, so getting out for a walk is fabulous. I’ve found a great friend to walk with, and we get a 5k walk done 4x a week at around 10:00 am. Two days a week I teach at Gymboree, so that pretty much fills out a great workout plan! The training will come, but I think I’m really going to have to get into a type of Polyphasic sleep pattern (probably the 3 hour core sleep one) in order to actually get everything done well that I want/need to do, but I can’t follow that until I’m really done with Gymboree as a day at Gymboree has no breaks so I’d not be able to nap. Might take a look at this again in November.

I’ve been doing some great reading lately, which I’ll probably share along the way, and I’m feeling like I’m ready to tackle my eating habits. I need to keep it simple because I can’t handle anything more complicated right now. I’m thinking a nutrient dense protein shake in the morning, a vegetable/bean soup and boiled egg at lunch, and a protein and salad for dinner with natural yogurt and seeds for dessert. I’ll toss in some Omega 3 fatty acids along the way, and Bob’s your uncle! Not hugely varied, but for now, it’s easy, nutritious, low-calorie, and brainless. From where I stand now, that looks like a good plan!

One thing I’ve been doing is filling my mind with ideas that help me be more disciplined, focused, and aligned with my main purpose. This started when, for fun, I picked up Og Mandino’s book “The Greatest Salesman in the World“. After you get about half way through the book he suggests reading each of the seven scrolls (part of the story) 3x a day for a month. When you’ve done that with the first scroll, you move on to the second scroll and do the same thing – read that one 3x a day for a month. There are 6 scrolls to read like this. I actually scheduled the reading into my daily calendar and am finding it helpful for keeping focused on the important things and not allowing myself to be distracted by things that aren’t that important. Because I’m also trying to get a better handle on my finances, I started doing the same thing with Napoleon Hill’s “Think and Grow Rich” and since coming home, I’ve added Jack Canfield’s “The Success Principles(TM): How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be” though the latter two I only read once a day – one at lunch and one at bedtime – as the chapters are much longer.

I think this is really helping me. My goal this year is to finally drop the extra weight (which has increased slightly since Mexico…Sigh…) and pay off our credit card debt. In three years I’d like to be fully debt free (including having our house fully paid off), and financially free through location independent businesses. I’d also like to be traveling regularly and living in a self-designed house somewhere in the mountains.

With that kind of clarity behind me, I’d like to get back into blogging on this blog (I still blog regularly at HotSpot Promotion) and sharing a bit of my journey. I want to go back to creating an “automated lifestyle” by adding habits once a week and mastering some of those things that are making me weak and ineffective.

If you want to join me, here are my goals for this week:

1. Read “The Scroll Marked II” 3x daily from “The Greatest Salesman in the World” (I already started this a few weeks ago, so I’m a bit ahead of the game here)
2. Read Chapter 2 “Desire: The Starting Point of All Achievement” in “Think and Grow Rich” daily at lunchtime (I started reading this last week, and up to this point the chapters are not really worth repeating daily, so if you want to start with this, read up to the end of this chapter first, as your first reading, and then just repeat chapter 2 every day).
3. Read “Principle 1: Take 100% Responsibility For Your Life” from “The Success Principles(TM): How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be” daily at bedtime (again, let your first reading catch you up to the end of this chapter, and then read just this chapter each day).
4. Exercise according to the schedule I laid out above.
5. Begin each day with 1/2 litre of water sipped slowly over a couple of hours.
6. Make a daily high nutrition protein shake for breakfast each morning (currently mine consists of 1 Tbsp ground flax seed (I grind it fresh), 1 tsp Nutra Sea Fish Oil
   , 1 scoop Garden of Life – RAW Meal meal replacement, 1 cup frozen mixed berries, 1 cup pure coconut juice (I use Sun Tropics juice from Costco), 1 cup Knudsen Mega Green Juice, and 1 cup Blue Diamond Almond Breeze Milk, Unsweetened Original)

That looks a little overwhelming for a starting place if you’re just jumping in with me here. I would recommend doing only one of the books (Og Mandino’s is the easiest and shortest read) and then start either with the exercise or the breakfast/water. Add the others in as it becomes manageable.

Comments? Questions? Post them below!

Darlene

Be A Star! Post your comments below and join in the conversation (or get it started!) and then share this post with your friends using the different share buttons on the blog. I’d sure appreciate it! Thanks!

Be A Star! Post your comments below and join in the conversation (or get it started!) and then share this post with your friends using the different share buttons on the blog. I'd sure appreciate it! Thanks!

Who is Darlene Hull? Click here: www.darlenehull.com to find out!

Well, the last few months have been wild. Too much on my plate, and that sense of panic that I’m not going to get it all done has forced me to constantly push my workout to the side.

Not good. It’s my workout that gives me the energy I need to get everything else done!

We’ve nixed the HotSpot Promotion angst by narrowing our focus even smaller to something that is highly effective and easy to keep up with. Not only are we still just focusing on the “little guy” (home/small business) but our main emphasis is on Appreciation Marketing, which is something I love, and am developing to a true art form! That has removed a lot of stress and peripheral tasks from our business, and should make what we offer even more effective.

Also, I spent the day reading yesterday. Some very helpful stuff which I’ll share a little later, and it’s helping me to find the time that’s just not there these days. I’m quite excited to put that into practice too!

These two changes mean that I’m back to focusing on my workout in a way that is not causing any stress. For this week only I’m simply doing a half hour of slow walking on the treadmill, focusing on perfecting my 15 minute warm-up and 15 minute cool-down procedure with the high-efficiency breathing exercises (I add another 5 minutes on to the end of the warm up and beginning of the cool down doing 4 beats of breathing in, completely filling my lungs, and 4 beats of “whooshing” the air out, completely emptying my lungs.) This is enabling me to start my day with my blood pumping and my brain clear!

Things are going to be happening over the next few months that will bring a huge change to my lifestyle, and so I’ll be keeping you posted here.

Kinda excited, really…

Darlene

Be A Star! Post your comments below and join in the conversation (or get it started!) and then share this post with your friends using the different share buttons on the blog. I'd sure appreciate it! Thanks!

Who is Darlene Hull? Click here: www.darlenehull.com to find out!

Hey, it’s national “Start Walking Day!”. The American Heart Association has a program called “Start Walking Now” and today is the day it begins for this year.

If you’re American, you can download it here: National Start Walking Day You can’t download it if you’re not American (at least, I couldn’t – if you figure it out, let me know!)

If you’re not American, you can download my freebie on the right and get started with that.

Or, keep it simple, and just head out the door. Hey, it feels like Spring in Calgary (finally!!) That, in itself is worth getting outside and taking a walk for! Can’t waste the beautiful weather – never know when the next snow dump will arrive!

Have a great day walking!!

Darlene

Be A Star! Post your comments below and join in the conversation (or get it started!) and then share this post with your friends using the different share buttons on the blog. I'd sure appreciate it! Thanks!

Who is Darlene Hull? Click here: www.darlenehull.com to find out!

So, the new year has begun. How are all those resolutions you set? Are you succeeding with any of them?

It’s difficult to succeed in making healthier choices in life. We all know we need to slow down, eat better, exercise more, spend more time with God and our families. Yes, it’s all there in black and white in our heads, but it’s just so hard to walk those choices out.

Over the years as my desperation to change has risen to a fever pitch, I’ve learned a few tricks that have helped me, so I thought I’d share them here in the hopes that they’ll help you, too.

1. One habit at a time – I know your list is long, but choose one habit at a time. If you try to tackle them all, you’ll fail at them all. If you tackle one at a time, you’ll master the ones you work on.
2. Keep it Small – Reduce your goal to the smallest possible steps and tackle one small step per week.

So, here are some ideas you might try:

Getting in shape: Let me suggest that you buy a pedometer instead of a gym membership. Measure your steps normally for a week, find your daily average, and increase that daily average the next week by 100 steps. Continue to increase your daily average week by week. When you’re up to a couple thousand add an easy, refreshing 10-minute walk. Increase the walk by 10 minutes every month. Once you hit 60 minutes, increase your speed.

Eating better: Don’t buy the latest diet book, simply start breakfast with a selection of fresh fruit, begin lunch with a bowl of vegetable soup (broth based) and dinner with a large tossed salad. Each week drink one more glass of water a day until you’ve reached a minimum of 8 glasses. Once you’ve mastered that, start eliminating the bad stuff – but keep one day a week as a splurge day.

Spending more time with my family: Instead of instigating something like a family night out of the blue, make a choice to stop, turn, and look when your child speaks to you – in other words, practice listening. Then start asking questions about things they like to do. Participate wherever you’re invited. Soon the family times take care of themselves.

Improving my relationship with God: I don’t think most of us need another study, a new prayer system, a new Bible, or a program. I would simply recommend a journal, a pen, and some time. As in the above goal, start with listening. It might be pretty quiet for a while, but God is speaking, and if we learn to hear Him, the rest falls into place.

These probably sound ridiculously simple, but I think you’ll find if you start here, doors will open up, and new possibilities will present themselves.

If this is the kind of thing you’re looking for to reach those resolutions, download my free, 8-week “Introduction to Praisewalking” ebook over there on the right, and get started!

Try it and see! Keep me posted on how it works for you!

Darlene

Be A Star! Post your comments below and join in the conversation (or get it started!) and then share this post with your friends using the different share buttons on the blog. I'd sure appreciate it! Thanks!

Who is Darlene Hull? Click here: www.darlenehull.com to find out!